75,000 Oezbeken ontvluchten geweld Kyrgyzstan; meer dan 100 doden

[Elzenga]

Hij is pro-Russisch en heeft al toenadering tot Moskou gezocht. De vorige regering papte meer aan met Amerika."

Laten we het maar op een zij houden...en hoewel zij inderdaad meer pro-Russisch is, krijg ik uit wat ik over de situatie lees meer het idee dat haar voorganger, Koermanbek Bakijev, meer een opportunist was en met iedereen wel deals wilde sluiten...en uiteindelijk vooral met de Chinezen bezig was...de Amerikaanse basis eerst wilde sluiten en toen weer niet...terwijl ondertussen de economische situatie in Kirgizië verder weg zakte..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurmanbek_Bakiyev

[VandeWiel]

De Kirgizische interim-president Roza Otoenbajeva vermoedt dat het dodental naar aanleiding van het politieke geweld veel hoger ligt dan tot nu toe werd verwacht. Er zouden al tweeduizend burgers zijn overleden. Tot nu toe werd aangenomen dat dat aantal op 190 lag.

Otoenbajeva 'zou de officiële cijfers vertienvoudigen'. "onze gebruiken schrijven voor dat we onze doden meteen moeten begraven, voor zonsondergang". Daarom zijn veel lijken niet geteld.

Het geweld van de afgelopen maanden concentreerde zich in en rond de stad Osj. 400.000 mensen zijn op de vlucht geslagen.

Reconstructie

In april begonnen demonstraties tegen de zittende regering. Enkele oppositieleiders werden opgepakt en de demonstranten begonnen te rellen. Er vielen zeker 58 doden in de hoofdstad Bisjkek. Na deze rellen nam oppositieleider Otoenbajeva het roer van de voormalige Sovjet-staat over. Hij is pro-Russisch en heeft al toenadering tot Moskou gezocht. De vorige regering papte meer aan met Amerika.


http://www.spitsnieuws.nl/archives/buitenland/2010/06/dodental_kirgizie_naar_2000.html

[Elzenga]

Ik vind het al vrij radicaal als je dorpen uitbrandt en 113 mensen vermoord. 

Je zou hopen dat die (militaire) aanwezigheid juist wat stabiliteit oplevert.

Er doen nu zoveel cijfers te ronden dat het beeld wazig wordt....maar dat er net als bij andere etnische botsingen flink is huisgehouden en gemoord lijkt me duidelijk..juist in een gebied waar die militaire aanwezigheid er niet is...Maar ik vermoed dus dat er meer meespeelt. De interimregering onder Roza Otoenbajeva is duidelijk pro-Rusland. Terwijl ook de VS en met name China zich duidelijk focussen op het land. Wat weer tot spanningen leidt, nu ook etnische.

[VandeWiel]

In de gaten houden. Zodat er geen speelruimte ontstaat voor radicale elementen....

Ik vind het al vrij radicaal als je dorpen uitbrandt en 113 mensen vermoord. 

Je zou hopen dat die (militaire) aanwezigheid juist wat stabiliteit oplevert.

[Elzenga]

ingewikkelde toestand daar...naast politieke nu ook etnische spanningen...geen prettige ontwikkelingen. Vermoedelijk spelen er grotere belangen naast die van lokale machthebbers. Ook de aanwezigheid van zowel Russen als Amerikanen zorgt voor spanningen. In de gaten houden. Zodat er geen speelruimte ontstaat voor radicale elementen....die er gezien de rol bij het conflict in Afghanistan belang bij zouden kunnen hebben daar de boel verder te ontregelen.

[VandeWiel]

Triumphant crowds of Kyrgyz men took control of Osh, the second-largest city in Kyrgyzstan, on Sunday as the few Uzbeks still left barricaded themselves in their neighborhoods. Fires set by rioters raged across the city of 250,000, and food was scarce after widespread looting. Police or military troops were nowhere to be seen.

The interim government ordered troops to shoot rioters dead, but even that failed to stop the spiraling violence.

The Health Ministry said the official casualty toll Sunday rose to at least 104 people killed and 1,231 wounded. The ministry said this included 21 dead in the main hospital in Jalal-Abad.

Er is opnieuw een vreselijke genocide aan de gang en wel in het enige land ter wereld met zowel Russische als Amerikaanse basis... Nu hopen dat er niet de andere kant wordt opgekeken zoals al zo vaak in Kyrgyzstan is gebeurd.

[VandeWiel]

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) -- Kyrgyz mobs burned Uzbek villages and slaughtered their residents Sunday in the worst ethnic rioting this Central Asian nation has seen in 20 years, sending more than 75,000 Uzbeks fleeing across the border into Uzbekistan.

Most of the Uzbek refugees were elderly people, women and children, and many had gunshot wounds, the Uzbek Emergencies Ministry said in a statement carried by Russia's RIA Novosti news agency. It said refugee camps were being set up for them in several areas of Uzbekistan.

Fires set by rioters have destroyed most of Osh, the second-largest city in Kyrgyzstan, and food was scarce after widespread looting. Triumphant crowds of Kyrgyz men took control of Osh on Sunday as the few Uzbeks still left in the city of 250,000 barricaded themselves in their neighborhoods. Fires continued to rage across Osh and shots were heard but police were nowhere to be seen.

The rioting has significant political overtones. Former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted in a bloody uprising in April and fled the country. Uzbeks have backed Kyrgyzstan's interim government, while many Kyrgyz in the south support the toppled president.

Interim President Roza Otunbayeva blamed Bakiyev's family for instigating the unrest, saying it aimed to derail a June 27 constitutional referendum and new elections scheduled for October. A local official in the south said Bakiyev supporters had attacked both Kyrgyz and Uzbeks to ignite the rioting.

From his self-imposed exile in Belarus, Bakiyev denied any role in the violence and blamed interim authorities for failing to protect the people.

The interim government has ordered troops to shoot rioters dead but even that failed to stop the spiraling violence that has left more than 100 people dead and over 1,250 wounded since Thursday night. Doctors say that toll is far too low because wounded minority Uzbeks are too afraid of being attacked again to go to hospitals.

The rampages spread quickly Sunday to Jalal-Abad, another major southern city, and its neighboring villages, as mobs methodically set Uzbek houses, stores and cafes on fire. The rioters seized an armored vehicle and automatic weapons at a local military unit and attacked police stations around the region trying to get more firearms.

Police and the military appeared to be on the defensive across the south, avoiding clashes with mobs. Flights to both Osh and Jalal-Abad were canceled.

''Bakiyev's entourage has funded and organized these riots,'' Otunbayeva's deputy Omurbek Tekebayev told The Associated Press.

Kyrgyzstan hosts both U.S. and Russian military air bases, but they are in the north, away from the rioting. Otunbayeva had asked Russia for military help Saturday to quell the rioting, but the Kremlin refused.

But Russia on Sunday sent a battalion of paratroopers -- about 300 people -- to reinforce security at its air base, the Interfax news agency reported. The base has about 500 personnel, most air force members.

The U.S. Manas air base in the capital, Bishkek, is a crucial supply hub for the coalition fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, but a Pentagon spokesman said the interim government had not asked for any U.S. military help.

The U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan voiced a deep concern about the raging violence and called for the ''immediate restoration of order and a respect for rule of law.'' It said it was discussing humanitarian aid with the interim government.

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was ''alarmed by the scale of the clashes'' and the mounting death toll and was discussing what aid the U.N. could send to help the fleeing refugees.

Uzbekistan's Foreign Ministry condemned the riots and voiced hope that Kyrgyzstan will re-establish order, but the country's authoritarian President Islam Karimov is unlikely to interfere in the conflict.

In Jalal-Abad on Sunday, thousands of Kyrgyz men brandishing sticks, metals bars and hunting rifles marched together to burn Uzbek property while frightened police stayed away. Uzbeks felled trees on the city's main street, trying to block their advance. Jalal-Abad is 45 miles (70 kilometers) from Osh.

Kyrgyz mobs tried to storm the city's hospital, but Uzbeks drove them off after a fierce gunbattle that raged for hours, witnesses said. Mobs also surrounded a local prison, trying to free its inmates and attempted repeatedly to capture the Jalal-Abad police headquarters, but were repelled.


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/06/13/world/asia/AP-AS-Kyrgyzstan-Unrest.html?_r=3&src=twt&twt=nytimesglobal

[VandeWiel]

OSH, Kyrgyzstan (AP) - More than 75,000 ethnic Uzbeks have fled across the border as southern Kyrgyzstan was convulsed by the worst ethnic riots the Central Asian nation has seen in 20 years.

Triumphant crowds of Kyrgyz men took control of Osh, the second-largest city in Kyrgyzstan, on Sunday as the few Uzbeks still left barricaded themselves in their neighborhoods. Fires set by rioters raged across the city of 250,000, and food was scarce after widespread looting. Police or military troops were nowhere to be seen.

The interim government ordered troops to shoot rioters dead, but even that failed to stop the spiraling violence.

The Health Ministry said the official casualty toll Sunday rose to at least 104 people killed and 1,231 wounded. The ministry said this included 21 dead in the main hospital in Jalal-Abad.


http://www.todayonline.com/BreakingNews/EDC100613-0000047/Uzbekistan--Over-75,000-Uzbeks-flee-ethnic-violence-in-Kyrgyzstan,-many-are-wounded